THE BOY WHO CRIED

The Hope Theatre March 2014 | The Tabard Theatre April 2014

A play by Matthew Osman

late 13c., “affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes of the moon,” from Old French lunatique, lunage “insane,” or directly from Late Latin lunaticus “moon-struck”.

A central moon dominates an almost-the-same, nearly familiar world.

A young girl has gone missing last night, believed murdered.

Everyone knows werewolves lurk behind every front door. It is the duty of the State to have them hunted down, tortured and then terminated. Here there are no police officers, only Protection Officers.

Sam Elvin has been locked in his mental turmoil for years, and in his room for days. Apart from last night – when he didn’t come home.

What choice does his anxious mother to have but to call in the services of the Protection Officer?

Rough Haired Pointer presents a world premiere of Matthew Osman’s The Boy Who Cried. The play is a brilliantly surreal depiction of a world where prejudice has run riot. Sam Elvin’s longings appeal to the all-too-human urge to release the beast, to let our hair down and for one day a month to hunt the things you cannot on the other 29. It raises the question – would it be preferable to have certain sorts safely out of sight, out of their minds…

TimeOut ★★★

"Rough Haired Pointer roll werewolves and absurdism together in this imaginative, blackly comic look at alienation and our fear of what might be lurking inside other people…When its claws are out, it’s fiercely original and sharply funny"

Views from The Gods

"A compelling production – a shocking one… A piece of new writing which challenges, shocks and provokes thought"

WhatsOnStage

"A heady…brew of George Orwell, R D Laing and Jacobean tragedy…. I saw enough to know that Rough Haired Pointer… might yet develop into a potent force on the fringe"